Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Song of Arda (copyright 2003 June Vollans)

She sat in her rocking chair, barely moving but for the slow
tapping of one foot as it reached toward the fire and back again. Her eyes were
closed and in her head she heard once more the eerie calling of the song of
Arda, the elven music she had been privy to only once in her long ago childhood
as she wandered lost through the deep green woods. She heard the music and
stopped to listen, hearing the whole tune only once in her life and never forgetting
a note of it. The fairies had found her and led her from the forest that very
afternoon, setting her safely back on the path to home. She sang the song
incessantly for a week after her return, until her father told her he never
wanted to hear it again. After that, it had rung in her head, as it did now.
When she grew and left home, she moved close to the edge of the forest, hoping
to hear the song played by the fairy once more before she died.

Her fat, wrinkled body barely fit into the old rocker now,
and her knees and arms ached with the chill of winter rains, but she could
still move swiftly if she needed to. Her head swayed slightly with the music
that ran through her head, eyes still closed against the sights of her small
and dark cottage home.

The village people feared her, called her 'old hag' and only
came to visit when they needed an herbal potion to still a disease or thought
she should help them to harm another. They knew not what they asked of her at
those times, that she would not comply. Instead she sent them hurrying off back
to the village when she raised her broomstick in anger. They called her 'witch'
and rumors spread of her powers. Those that she sent away, made up stories in
anger, until quite a legend had grown. According to that legend she was now one
hundred and fifty years old and was a great student of the black arts. In
reality, she was neither.

Her head swayed gently to the music, her eyes closed, her
foot barely moving toward the fire and back again. A smile perched gently on
her aging lips and she felt the presence of Arda once again.

She'd seen him but once, on a clear night many full moons
ago, as she sat on her stoop catching the cool breezes after a hot day. She was
humming his song and he came to stand at the edge of the forest, head tilted,
listening. She kept her eyes only slightly turned toward him, feigning
ignorance of his presence as she continued to hum his song. He stood in the
shadows, but the blue of his skin glistened in the darkness. He didn't speak
until she was finished.

"Where did you learn that song?" His voice lilted
across the yard on gossamer wings and landed gently on her aging ears.

"In the forest when I was very young," she
answered shyly.

"You've lived here for many years. I've never heard you
sing it before."

She was surprised that he knew she was here, surprised that
he'd been listening. "I sing it in my head," she told him softly.

"You say you heard it only once?"

She nodded, somehow knowing that he would see her do so even
in the dark of the night.

"Yet you know it without error." It was a
statement, something almost mumbled to himself.

"It's a very beautiful tune," she had said, and
then she had boldly asked, "What is it called?"

"It is my own song, the Song of Arda," he
answered, then he added softly, "You should not sing it aloud again."

He disappeared into the forest then, melting into the
shadows to become one of them. She never saw him again but there was always
hope that he would play for her once more before she died.

She let the music take her away from the cabin then, far
away into the forest, deep within the realm of Arda. The music played in her
head and she smiled a gentle smile. The wind began to mutter against the creaky
old hut and she paused for only a second to be sure she wasn't going to have to
tie down the shutters. But the wind abated and stilled once more. And the music
began to rise.

She stopped breathing and listened. This time it wasn't in
her head. This time it was coming from the forest. She stiffly rose, and
shuffled to the door, bringing it open as quietly as she could, pulling her
tattered shawl around her to try to stop the cold.

Across the yard, over by the trees, he stood, shimmering
blue in the night. He never wavered as the tune was played clear, bright, full
of promise and mystery. His song. The Song of Arda.

Suddenly she realized he was singing. The words. She'd never
heard the words before. Only the tune. She sank to the stoop and listened, her
eyes never leaving him. His lute played softly, his voice sang clear, telling
how he'd been forced to fight in a great battle, the death of his father and
mother, and finally of his coming to the forest, leaving all behind him save
this song. And she understood. She remembered the song because his story was her
own. They were joined by the music in the stories of their lives. Tears rolled
down her cheeks as she listened and remembered. Sorrow for times past rolled
over her as the words told their story.

But the words began to tell more, how his life became peace
in the forest, how life held new meaning and hope, how it was that he could
sing the song without hate or pain because the memories could not harm him any
longer. He had found peace in the forest as she had found it at its edge. Her
sigh of joy was felt across the yard and into his heart and he paused his
singing.

"Yes," he said softly, turning to look into her
face. "Yes."

Then he melted back into the trees, becoming the shadows once
again. She waited for a time, then stood and shuffled back into her hut,
shutting out the cool night breezes.

She sat in her rocking chair, barely moving but for the slow
tapping of one foot as it reached toward the fire and back again. Her eyes were
closed and in her head she heard once more the eerie calling of the song of
Arda. Only this time, she heard the words as well as the music.

1 comment:

I like this. I was going through my poetry and found the beginnings of "The Song Of Arda". This is what I have so far.The Song of Arda

I sing to you the story of the Shire of Colundo, A tale of darkness, Slithers and Mordoon. How on an autumn night, after harvest was all in, There came a shadow, sliding o're the moon.

'Twas after witch's timber, all were fast upon their dreams, Came danger, not foretold, without a sound. Sliding through the murky air, into our very midst, The Slithers, led by Mordoon, came to ground.